A kill by Cole, a Dreven-Mark Greaves (Sr., Fenton, Mo.) block and a Quincy error gave Ohio State a 3-0 lead in game one. The Hawks closed to within one at 6-5 and 7-6 but kills from Dreven and Cole made it 9-6. The Buckeyes would hold the lead and at 28-23, two Cole kills ended the game at 30-23. Ohio State hit .448 in the game to .250 for Quincy.

Game two saw 10 lead changes and 18 ties between the teams. A Hawk service error set game point for the Buckeyes at 29-25. Quincy scored the next four points to tie the game at 29. A Caruso kill started the run, followed by an OSU error. A Niels Pedersen ace serve and a solo block by Splitt completed the run. A Quincy service error made hit 30-29, with OSU serving game point five. A Splitt kill tied the game at 30. The Hawks took a 31-30 lead with a Caruso solo block and served game point. A John Albertson (So./Fr., Manchester, Mo.) kill tied the game at 31. The Buckeyes took a 32-31 lead with an Albertson-Cole block and had their sixth game point. An OSU service error tied the game at 32. Ohio State went ahead, 33-32, with a Klein-Albertson block, serving game point seven. The Buckeyes closed out the game with a Klein kill to win, 34-32, and take a 2-0 lead in the match. The Buckeyes hit .100 for the game to .060 for the Hawks.

Trailing 2-1, a Cole kill tied game three at two. A Cole ace serve, a Hawk error, a Dreven-Kelin block and another Hawk error opened a 6-2 Ohio State lead. The Buckeyes held a six-point lead at 15-9, but Quincy rallied and tied the game at 17 with a Caruso kill. The Buckeyes built another lead to five at 25-20. At 27-22, a Ryan Ehnert kill and a Hawk error moved the score to 28-23. A Cole kill set the Ohio State match point at 29-23. A Buckeye service error made it 29-24. Two OSU hitting errors and a Splitt kill cut the Buckeye lead to 29-27 as Ohio State called time out. Another Buckeye error cut the OSU lead to one at 29-28. On OSU’s sixth match point, a Hawk service error ended the game at 30-28, OSU, for a 3-0 Buckeye win. Quincy hit .184 in the game to .175 for Ohio State.

Ohio State hit .220 for the match to .153 for Quincy. The Hawks had a 45-43 edge in kills and a seven to four advantage in ace serves. The Hawks gave up 19 service errors to 11 for the Buckeyes. Defensively, Ohio State had a 44-37 margin in digs with Hawk Mike Contee recording a match-high 14 digs with OSU’s Conor Martin (So., Avon Lake, Ohio) collecting 12 and Cole 10. At the net, the Hawks had a 9.5 to 8 edge in team blocks. Hawk Branden Been shared match-high honors with four assist blocks. OSU’s Dreven had four assist blocks and Albertson collected a solo and three assist blocks. Ohio State’s Daniel Mathews (So., Shorewood, Wis.) had a match-high 37 assists for the Buckeyes with Quincy’s Pedersen collecting 33.

Ohio State will now play in the MIVA Tournament Quarterfinals, Saturday, April 22 at 7 p.m. in St. John Arena. The fourth-seeded Buckeye will face fifth-seeded Quincy in the quarterfinals, playing the Hawks for the third time in four matches. The quarterfinal winner will advance to the MIVA Semifinals, April 27, hosted by Loyola, the No. 1 seed in the tournament.